Elizabeth Gilbert recently released a new book called "Committed", it's the follow up to "Eat, Pray Love." I did enjoy this first novel but not as much as most people did. It really didn't inspire me like I thought it would. I am hoping to enjoy "Committed" a lot more. That's what makes for a good book in my opinion-one that will inspire and teach me in someway. I want to feel smarter/better for having read the book in the first place. Of course not all books I read turn out that way but most of the time, I am still glad that I read them.
"Novels... teach you the secret, that the best of life is conversation." -Unknown
Anyway, I just read an interview with Elizabeth Gilbert and she discussed how traveling can lead to a happier life in the long run. I couldn't agree more with that.
The interview question: Travel clearly plays any important role in your life, especially in times of personal transformation. How does finding yourself in a new place geographically help you find yourself emotionally and spiritually?
Her response: I think travel rearranges your brain chemistry, which, of course, can help to rearrange you emotional and spiritual outlook. When you don't know the language, the currency, the public transportation system, or how the social norms of a new place work, you are forced into the present moment, forced to concentrate, forced to learn and to respond. I think this can jar the brain into new patters and thinking habits. Not to mention the incredible and freshly renewed perspective that can come when you are exposed to the new, the foreign, the different.
This is all so true and I am sure this is why I enjoy traveling somewhere new and different every year. I think its imperative that everyone step out of their comfort zone at home and go experience something completely different. It is by doing this that we can know who we really are and what we are made of deep inside. So if you don't already, get out there and travel as much as you can!
"Every spirit builds itself a house, and beyond its house a world, and beyond its world a heaven. Know then that that world exists for you." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am reading "Committed" now and loving it - not as much as "EPL", but there is a lot of travel involved and she writes that well.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with her quote form the interview you read and love the line: "I think travel rearranges your brain chemistry..." Travel is vital to me and I'm glad you have the bug too. :) It's all about stepping out of your comfort zone.
Coming home is sweet too. xoxo